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Exhausted and can't manage your life? It's not you, it's the system

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Under too much pressure in your life and don't have any free time? It's happening to just about everyone -- and it's not your fault.

I was dismayed by the comments of two women on CBC Toronto's Metro Morning Monday. The program deserves credit for planning all this week to deal with issues of stress and the fact that most people don't have enough hours in the day to deal with important, often crucial, matters.

The two women were picked at random on the streets of downtown Toronto. They told the CBC horrendous stories about how difficult their lives are -- from being unable to meet the needs of their children to too much stress at work, not enough money for childcare and having no time to themselves.

How serious is the problem? A poll conducted for the Heart and Stroke Foundation revealed that half those interviewed were unhealthy because of their lifestyle:

44 per cent of respondents said they had no time for regular physical activity.

41 per cent said healthy meals take too long to prepare.

More than half (51 per cent) said fast food outlets don't have enough healthy choices.

And almost a third (31 per cent) said the time they would like to spend being active they instead spend commuting.

These findings are of interest to the folks at Heart and Stroke because heart disease and stroke kills one in three Canadians and is the leading killer of women.

The two women interviewed by the CBC felt it was their fault that they couldn't manage their lives better. Canadians are poorly informed when it comes to understanding the big economic and political picture. So it probably would never cross their minds that the real issue is the economic system we're now living under.

Wait for it, and don't be afraid: The problem is the out-of-control form of heartless capitalism we live under.

While I'm not fond of any form of capitalism, back in the 1960s and 70s we had what might be called "benevolent capitalism." Money was more equally distributed than now. Most corporations felt they had an obligation to pay their taxes -- well, at least part of their taxes. Both a university education and housing were cheaper.

Society began to change dramatically toward the end of the 1970s. A package of policies known as neo-liberalism -- never before tested -- was undemocratically imposed upon us. Trickle-down economics filled the pockets of the rich and corporations with billions in cash. The incomes of ordinary folks began to stagnate.

Both the rich and corporations now pay less in taxes. Many social service programs have been gutted. When governments didn't have enough money to run the system because of the tax breaks for the rich, they imposed austerity on the rest of us. Unions were bashed into submission. Mainstream media succumbed to the powers of the corporate world.

If Canadians were better informed by a comprehensive education system and a socially responsible mass media, the two women interviewed by the CBC would understand that they and millions of other stressed-out people are not primarily responsible for the near chaos in their lives.

What's really to blame is the system that squeezes us more and more year after year.

Nick Fillmore is a Toronto freelance journalist and social activist, and a frequent contributor to rabble.ca He can be reached at fillmore0274@rogers.com.

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